Pages

Sunday, 23 March 2014

Project Afrika Coc Update # 3

We played a
new and likely final test-game, before formally launching the Afrika CoC campaign, our first major club
collective project put in motion last
December using the Too Fat Lardies Chain
of Command rules.

Following a
somewhat disappointing game a few weeks ago were we perhaps overstretched the
rules introducing three infantry platoons, this time we wanted to test what
happens when playing with two infantry platoons and one armoured troop... and
it went really well!

Boys und
Panzers

This time
we field one British infantry platoon with some supports plus an armoured tank
troop of mixed vehicle types (Matildas, Crusader and Honeys) vs two Axis (one
German and one Italian) infantry platoons together with fairly large Panzer Zug
(2 Pz IIs and 2 Pz IIs).

As in
previous large games, we organised the commands allocating five dice per player
but only allowing the Force Commander to account for the Chain of Command
points when rolling his dice.

As for
sequential activations (two “6s” in a roll) we allowed the active individual player
to take another phase; in the case of achieving three “6s” (marking the end of
a turn) we applied the recommendations of the rules and to force an additional
roll where only 5 or 6 mark the end of the turn.Only one
Force Moral table was allocated per side, the Germans starting at 11 and the
British at 8.

For the
test we selected Scenario Three “Attack-Defence” from the book. Patrol markers
were assigned to the infantry platoons (2 sets to the Germans and one to the
British) and conducted the phase as indicated in the scenario conditions.
Victory conditions for the Germans were to eject the British from the
battlefield.

The
development of the game saw the Axis attacking with the Italian infantry on the
right flank where most of the Indian infantry deployed to stop the advance. On
the left flank the German infantry emerged together with the artillery FOO which
had a major role in this battle.

The British
armoured units (Matildas), an AT gun (2 pdr) and a Bren Carrier section were released early
in the game trying to stop the gap on the right side of its line, where the
Germans were attacking with the support of a Pz IV. In the meantime, the remaining British tanks
were allocated to the other flank to beef up the Indian defences.

With most of
the British troops already on the table, it was time for the Panzers to deploy
which they did next to the Italian infantry who was making good progress
towards the enemy: one section supporting the advance of its sister with the
fire of the two LMG teams and the strong 10-men rile section.

In the left
flank the Indian infantry suffered a number of casualties and shocks and the
two senior leaders attached to the unit had to work hard to avoid panic spreading
among their lines. A Honey in support saw the gun knocked out but still could
provide some support with the MGs. The Crusader and a Matilda made a brave dash
forward to stop the German tanks and made a lucky hit on the Panzer Commander
vehicle (that was me, by the way) , which added a lot of complexity to the management
of the armoured unit, who then on could only activate with the tank leader in
each vehicle.

In the
other flank the FOO put a deadly mortar barrage on the 2pdr, killing the crew
and wiping out the unit. A second mortar barrage was this time placed on the
Bren Carrier section that was threatening the German infantry in the area,
destroying one of the vehicles and forcing the other to retreat badly mauled.

With the Indian
casualties and the successful destruction of both the Bren and the AT gun, the British
Force morale level fell to l 4, reducing the allotted command dice to four. The
Indians and the Tanks were pinned by the Italians and the Panzers; and the
German infantry now had a clear passage to make a flank attack on the British
positions... the British commander decided that it was better to pull back and
fight another day. A German decisive victory.

Handling
Panzer Troops (how NOT to)

Until now I’ve
been using single individual tanks in support of the main infantry forces in my
games; but today was a totally different and interesting new experience, managing
a whole Panzer troop.

CoC standard
mechanism to handle tanks is simple: individual tanks activate with the junior
leader (rolling a 3 with the command dice) and depending on the number of
initiatives he can order move, shot or a mix or both.

When a full
tank troop/section (3 or more vehicles) plays, then a senior leader is
allocated to one tank (command tank) and he can give orders to the individual
tanks (up to his limit of initiatives, usually three) using the radio or with
visual signals (flags, etc).

What seems
simple in paper, it is a quite complex in the table.When rolling the dice you do not usually get
the results you’d like at each moment, forcing to make decisions and trade-offs.
On average only half of your force is activated at each phase; and as the battle
progresses, shocks accumulate and the vehicles suffer from malfunction, their
performance decrease at an accelerated rate.

An example
this morning: the command vehicle was hit several times, shocks went to three
(moral level was four) and loss part of the crew. The senior leader had to
invest initiatives in recovering his crew and reducing shock, leaving the rest
of the vehicles stranded without orders. This made truly hard to manage the tank
section as I had to rely on the “3s” to activate the other tanks, and with just
5 command dice the probabilities of success were really limited.

It was fun, probably realistic but above all... quite stressing! Clearly this was new territory to me and I
did not follow two simple rules: you cannot (1) just emerge from the table edge
and expect shooting to anything moving when you want and (2) think that you’re
safe just because you’re “armoured” ... no, it does not work that way... do not
which yet, but I’ll have to learn

Thanks for your comments, guys.Just in case anyone interested many of these minis were painted by a newborn star (and a club member) that is looking to make a living out fo his artistic abilities. You can take a look at the recently released blog:http://katewp.blogspot.com.es/

About Anibal Invictus

A fairly experienced Spanish wargamer, based in Madrid. Together with a group of friends founder of "Club Dragón" in the early 80s. A truly TooFatLardies gruppie since a first love encounter in 2008, I regularly play the Napoleonic, WWI, WWII and Vietnam periods.